the blog of LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

Citizen dialog for transparent process

Sunday, 11 September 2011

If public prisons are bad, what about private prisons?

If the VDT can't get a public prison already in Lowndes County
to comply with Georgia's quite strong open records law even with
years of requests,
why would we want a private prison in Lowndes County, which wouldn't
have any open records requirements at all?

Inmates are intelligent. All they have is time. Why? Because there is no
rehabilitation anymore. They are merely being housed. The prison programs
don't work, especially for lifers with nothing else to lose. So they
have plenty of time to figure out ways to beat the system.

Information regarding the violent attacks at Valdosta State Prison
remains guarded, with no records made available by the Georgia Department
of Corrections.

Access to documents pertaining to the 2007 attack of former Valdosta
State Prison correctional officer William Bond through an Open Records
request has been denied by the Department of Corrections, which indicated
that this incident was part of an internal investigation.

“Internal Investigations have been declared privileged and confidential
state secrets, as a matter of law, Official Code of Georgia Annotated
Section 42-5-36(b), and, therefore, pursuant to Official Code of
Georgia Annotated Section 50-18-70(b), said records are exempt from
being open to inspection under the Open Records Act,” Rhoda McCabe,
senior assistant counsel at the Georgia Department of Corrections’
legal office, explained.

In response to a request for documents pertaining to the July 2005 and
June 2006 attacks of former officer William Lewis, the Valdosta State
Prison advised McCabe that records concerning the July 2005 incident have
been destroyed. McCabe stated that copies of the incident report from
the June 2006 have been forwarded to the Department of Corrections’
legal office and will be made available. The Times continues to await
this information.

Numerous incidents of violence inside Valdosta State Prison (VSP) have prompted an investigation by The Times, the third such investigation in the last four years.

DOC did come up with yet another excuse:

The DOC provided information to The Times this week with answers to some,
but not all, of the questions posed in the most recent Open Records filing
on June 10. The DOC is restricted by HIPPAA (Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act) laws, which makes it illegal for the state to
release information related to medical treatment of an inmate unless
the injuries are fatal, in which case records can be released post mortem.

HIPAA is generally a good thing, but after all the other excuses,
one has to wonder whether that's DOC's real reason for not wanting
to release information.

A citizen walks into a prison and says, Hello, I'd like to look at the
visitors' sign-in log, which is a public record under state law.

No, a prison official says.

Things rapidly go downhill from there. Police are called, the citizen is
given a trespass warning notice and now the citizen has filed a lawsuit,
claiming his constitutional rights were trampled upon.

That's right, he didn't even ask to see records about inmate violence,
or guard corruption, or expenditures.
He asked to see the visitors' sign-in log.
And for that they called the police on him.

This is even though Florida has a law that says:

"Any person shall have the right of access to public records for the
purpose of making photographs of the record while such record is in the
possession, custody, and control of the custodian of public records."

Who runs that prison?

Moore Haven's warden, Laura Bedard, referred questions to CCA
corporate headquarters in Nashville. "This was not a typical public
records request," CCA spokesman Steve Owen said. "They came in with
a videocamera."

Well, that's an excuse DOC hasn't used on the VDT yet, but DOC is
probably taking notes.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Georgia
is the other state, so in Georgia private prisons aren't even
required to provide what would be open records for a public prison.
And we see how well public prisons comply with Georgia's open records laws.

The CCA that called the cops on a citizen for requesting an open record
is the same CCA that wants to build a private prison in Lowndes County,
Georgia.
Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.